Lucerne is world-famous as one of the most popular destinations in Switzerland because
of its beautiful preservation of old historic buildings, its pedestrian zone on the shores
of Lake Lucerne and the River Reuss giving it a delightful waterside ambience.
You can take boat rides to connect with some of the nearby excursions to the mountaintops
around Lucerne, and in this program we're taking you up three mountains to the top of
Mount Rigi, to Burgenstock by funicular and Mount Pilatus.
You'll find these excursions, linked together with the scenic boat rides, provide some of
the most rewarding experiences in your visit to Lucerne.
The fleet has a couple of dozen ships, but try and select one of the historic side-paddlers
for the best journey.
There are a wide variety of routes you can pick from, ranging from a one-hour round-trip
to a full-day excursion, and in this episode we will focus on three wonderful options for
you.
You could do a two-hour round-trip from Lucerne out to the lakefront village of Weggis or,
extend that with a trip up the mountain to Rigi.
Another big excursion from Lucerne is over to Burgenstock and then continuing on to Mount
Pilatus, all coming right up.
The boat docks are right in front of the train station with frequent departures, and you
can check their schedules online or just go right to the ticket office and find out when
is the next boat leaving.
We'll start you out with a basic boat ride from Lucerne to the village of Weggis and
that just takes about 45 minutes one way.
You can pick from a variety of lengths of the boat ride.
It's all very easy to figure out.
The Swiss are so efficient in their transportation schedules of course.
As we leave the boat dock looking at the theater and convention center designed by Jean Nouvelle,
one of Europe's leading architects.
Nice view of Lucerne off the stern and looking up at Mount Pilatus where we will be taking
you later in the program.
It's the natural landmark site of Lucerne.
And as we reach the edge of the city, passing the marina you'll see that boating is very
popular among the locals of Lucerne, and there's a lovely public beach.
There are some cabana facilities in a park behind it.
Nice white sand.
Nobody swimming today, it's a little cool, and stops a few times along the way.
There is the Transportation Museum stop and then continuing on across one of the big legs
of the lake.
You'll notice some big mansions and tiny hamlets, so keep your camera ready, but perhaps the
nicest feature of the boat ride is simply relaxing, a place where you can just put your
mind in neutral.
The peaceful scenery will surely help you feel good.
You're welcome to bring your own food on board the ship, no problem with that.
Your own food and drinks, that's a real Swiss tradition, picnicking, going out for day's
hiking and carrying the rucksack on your back and with a lunch inside.
Or you can have a meal on board.
There is a first-class dining room with complete food service.
There is second-class dining room.
Or you can just sit down at the bar and have a drink.
You'll find there's a good view from your dining table, even if you're eating at the
indoor dining salon, but perhaps the best view of all is out on the open deck, especially
when the weather is mild.
You can see all around 360° and enjoy that fresh lake air.
We're on this kind of about, it's about this size.
There's a variety of larger and smaller boats.
The historic side-wheel paddleboats, some of them a century, old love to show off their
functioning and very clean engines.
The ship sometimes makes a few intermediate stops before you get to Weggis, such as here
at Hertenstein.
There is a deluxe resort hotel along the lake, and wouldn't that be a nice place to drop
anchor for a few days and do practically nothing except sit at the lakefront cafe and watch
the ships come and go?
You could easily stay in one of these lakefront villages, and sit Lucerne during the day for
your sightseeing in town.
That Campus Hotel Hertenstein gets a very good review on Trip Advisor, ranking it second
out of 18 hotels in the Weggis area, with a score of 4.5 out of 5, very good.
Excellent.
Weggis is a small village.
It has a few restaurants, a few shops, couple of little hotels.
You could spend a few days here if you wanted a quiet relaxing spot by the lakeshore.
You could just catch the next boat going back into Lucerne.
You wait around for 10 minutes or if you want to spend an hour here in Weggis you could
do it that way, but we're going up to Mount Rigi.
You could decide on the spot if you wish, you don't have to purchase a Rigi ticket ahead
of time.
You don't need a reservation.
So when you arrive at Weggis see how you feel.
Check out the weather, the visibility, the temperature and decide if you want to go up.
If so, you head over to the ticket booth and purchase your lift ticket.
You would not be disappointed.
It makes a great excursion.
And go up the mountain to Rigi by cable car.
At the top you can wander around, enjoy the views, then take a rack railway back down
to Vitznau, and finally catch the next boat for a return journey back to Lucerne.
You could do that Rigi route in reverse by staying on the boat until you get to Vitznau,
take the train up to Rigi, and then you can take a cable car down to Weggis and back to
Lucerne.
And so were going up Rigi from the village of Weggis.
The problem is that you do have to walk uphill for about 15 minutes to get to the cable car.
Whereas if you go up Rigi via Vitznau you just take the rack railway right from the
dock.
It's a little easier.
Anyway, this was a beautiful cable car ride up.
Either way, you can have the full round-trip, go up one way and down the other.
Halfway up, in this case we are changing from the cable car to the rack railway, and this
is going to get more spectacular every minute.
It's the month of May and so there is still quite a bit of snow up here on the slopes
of Rigi.
In the summer time, probably the snow is all melted, if you come here in July or August,
but now it's very white.
And we've arrived at the top where we can enjoy this magnificent vista.
We're just staying up at the top for a little while to enjoy the view and take some pictures.
But you could go visit the restaurant and have a meal.
We're looking from Rigi across the lake to the massif of the central Alps.
These are the highest mountains in the central Alps reaching a peak of 10,000 feet at Mount
Titlis.
You can see why it's a popular day's outing.
Take a hike.
Walking?
This is a rack railroad and that middle rail is actually a rack, and there's gears with
teeth on the underside of the train that engage that and pulls the train along up the steep
hills and down the steep hills.
It's the oldest rack railroad in Switzerland.
It was built in 1871, and it's still running today.
Of course the cars have been modernized and replaced since then.
Or you can just walk along the side of the tracks.
If you wish, and there are side trails that crisscross and honeycomb all over the hillside.
So this half-day outing really exposes you to a whole variety of different kinds of Swiss
transportation starting out with the boat ride.
Mount Rigi stands 5900 feet high and it's surrounded by waters that's called the island
mountain, with its steep shoulders covered with forests and beautiful chalets, and cows.
Those were some happy contented cows on the hillside and here's a happy dog in the train.
He's a Papillion type with those butterfly ears.
All in all, it's quite the half-day round-trip.
You can easily make a whole day of it just by taking your time and taking a little longer
stroll, having a longer lunch.
You could get off at some of the other villages along the lake shore.
There's a number of hotels in the area, small hotels.
You can see why Lucerne is such a popular place for the visitors to stay for a few days,
because there's quite a variety of things you can do from Lucerne.
Coming up next in the program were showing you the two other great destinations from
Lucerne, Burgenstock and Pilatus.
The Swiss schedule is perfectly timed.
You get off the train, on the boat, and depart for Lucerne.
Stopping a few more times at these little villages along the way.
Of course Vitznau is another small village where you could spend a night or two.
There are some lovely hotels like the Vitznauer Hof, founded in 1901, four-star deluxe.
It's a one-hour boat ride back to Lucerne following the same route you took getting
here.
And by now perhaps it's quite late in the day depending on your timing.
It could be fortunate you'll come home at sunset.
That's a beautiful time to be arriving in Lucerne by boat.
Well, as the boat pulls in, another view of the concert hall with its modern overhanging
roof.
So no doubt you're feeling a little tired, perhaps you want to rest up at the hotel and
then bounce back and go out for a fine dinner.
Coming up next we will show you the other trip you can take the next day, going by boat
once again to Burgenstock and then to Pilatus, and some action on the dock.
And we ran into a little bit of flamenco dancers, what a surprise.
Get some rest tonight because tomorrow morning we have another ambitious itinerary for you
on a day trip.
The main goal is Mount Pilatus, starting with boat ride to Burgenstock, then a funicular
ride up the hill for some hiking through the forest.
Another boat ride over to Pilatus, up a steep rack railway to the mountaintop, then cable
car ride back to Lucerne, and the city bus back into town.
Or to save time you could get to Pilatus directly by train, but you would like the boat ride.
An enjoyable option to consider on your way to Pilatus is a stop at Burgenstock.
It's a small mountain plateau with the dramatic cliff-hugging walking trail.
Most of the boats to Pilatus stop here en route, so hop off at the Burgenstock dock.
You can use one ticket that will take you all the way to Pilatus and get off part-way
here at Burgenstock, and then get back on the boat and continue to Pilatus later, and
use that ticket for the cable car after you finished with Pilatus, to come back down towards
the Lucerne.
You ride this funky, old-fashion funicular to the top, and notice the open air balcony.
It's the original railcar, the oldest funicular in Switzerland, first opened in 1888, reaching
maximum a gradient angle of 58°.
It's pulled up the steep hill by cables with automatic electric propulsion.
Upon reaching the top you can take a lovely nature hike following the signs to the cliff
walk.
This is a level path with sweeping views across the lake and straight down the rock face of
the mountain looking down about 1000 feet.
A series of short hiking trails continues through the forest, very easy to walk on.
They are either paved or they have a smooth gravel surface and the gradient is really
not steep at all.
So it's very pleasant walking in the shade of the tall trees of the forest.
It's big enough to give you a feeling of adventure but small enough that you will not get lost,
a little disoriented perhaps, but there are signposts to help you find your way.
Elevation is just over a thousand feet high and there's a plateau that features a 9-hole
golf course.
Burgenstock has always been popular holiday center, with luxury hotels that were first
built from 1872.
In recent years an amazing transformation of the hotel facilities has taken place with
construction of three new ultraluxury properties.
There is the five-star Burgenstock Hotel Superior.
And there is the Waldhotel for healthy living, which has 160 guestrooms and features spa,
and professional team with medical care, and healthy living facilities.
And then there is the reconstruction of the four-star Palace Hotel which was first built
in 1906, and all of its historical value is been retained during the renovation, bringing
it right up to date.
When finished with your visit, if you're not spending the night in one of those super-luxury
properties, you take the same funicular back down the hill to the boat dock and resume
your journey.
When this funicular first opened in 1888 it was water powered, filling its water tank
to make the car heavy, so gravity would pull it down while it pulled up the other lighter
car by cable.
And at the bottom, the water was emptied out and pumped back up the hill to the other car.
When done with Burgenstock, continue on with us to Pilatus.
It's another fun boat ride over to Alpnachstad, then up to Pilatus by rack rail, and down
by cable car back to Lucerne.
You can buy that rail ticket on the boat to avoid standing in line when you get to the
rail station.
They have some large boats here, as you can see.
They have first-class and second-class service on board with a snack shop and a cafe, a restaurant,
nice choices for a meal or just a light bite.
Or just simply sit outside and enjoy the view.
From the boat, you get a great view of where we are heading, Mount Pilatus, the signature
site of Lucerne.
And then you ride up the world's steepest cogwheel railway to the top of Pilatus, which
goes uphill at a 48° angle.
Some funicular are even steeper, such as the one at Burgenstock, 58° elevation, but
funicular are pulled up by cable, whereas this is a rack railroad.
Get some beautiful views along the way.
Great place to snap some more pictures, shoot some more video, and soon we're up in the
snowfields.
Arriving at the top of Mount Pilatus on this funky little funicular.
And at the top, surprise, surprise, there is actually a hotel up here.
That round building is a hotel where you could spend the night.
You could hike up, but that's pretty strenuous, much easier to just pay the money, reasonable
charge and go on up via funicular.
And they have a restaurant, there are several cafes, beautiful platforms, staircases, and
vistas and viewpoints in all directions.
The Swiss have truly got some great scenery here and have civilized their mountaintops.
You can return back down the same way on the rack railway, or for a slightly faster alternative
with a totally different routing, a little bit of variety for you, take the cable car
down the backside of the mountain to Krienz, and then you walk a few blocks to the city
bus stop that will then whisk you right back into town.
It's quicker and it gives you some variety.
Final view looking from Lucerne back up to where we just came from, Mount Pilatus.
We have a big series of movies about Switzerland taking you to most of the great places.
We will bring you to Lucerne and up to Mount Titlis, Mount Rigi, over to Interlaken, up
to the Jungfrau.
We will see the Shilthorn, Lauterbrunnen Valley, Trummelbach Falls, Grindelwald, Bern, then
on to Zermatt, the Matterhorn, yes we will have a look at the Gornergrat, up the Sunnegga,
do some hiking, show you the village then on down to Lugano and Locarno in the southern
part of Switzerland, the Ticino we also take you to the great city of Zürich.
Look for them in our Swiss collection.